Since its official release in April 2013, Trion's massively playable online third-person shooter, Defiance, has undergone more or less significant changes and adaptations to its gameplay. As a result, several DLCs have been released. During the game's first season, bringing content and new ways to play, and some of these evolutions can be confusing if you've been on hiatus for awhile, here's a recap of the notable differences from the original game.
Main novelties
- New enemies: the volges
- The same villains who tried to wipe out the city of Defiance on the show. Introduced by the second DLC, "Arcos-Conquerors".
- New factions: 7th Legion and Chimera
- Both have their own merchants whose items are, like the other factions, purchasable with the reputation points obtained with the contracts.
- New game mode: arena
- The arenas, initially playable only in single player mode and inaugurated by the “Castithan Energy” DLC, are instances where you have to kill the most enemies within a given time and achieve the highest score.
- The Gunslinger Trials DLC introduced several new arenas and made them all playable in groups.
- New playable race: Castithans
- Introduced by the first Energie Castithanne DLC.
- New type of melee weapon
- Castithanne charge blades, arrived with DLC 1, and katanas from DLC 3 The 7th Legion.
- New type of arch fallout: Scourge of the West
- Ending with a fight against a Monolith. Arrived with the first DLC.
- New event: headquarters
- The Arcos-Conqueror DLC introduced Siege Event, Infected or Volges, concentrating a massive attack of the latter in a specific location.
- New event: assault
- Arrived with the third DLC, The 7 th Legion, it is a series of emergencies to be carried out and ending with a siege.
- New boss: the Warmaster
- It's found in a new kind of arch fallout, this time instantiated and explorable. Once you enter the fallout, you face a few volges and then you enter the Warmaster's room for a high level clash. Introduced by the Arcos-Conquerors DLC.
- New types of equipment
- Dopas and dynapods have appeared with the Arcos-Conquerors DLC. These are two new combat equipment allowing better tactics. Dopa is a kind of syringe with automatic injection into the neck and doping different capacities (melee, health refill, etc.). The dynapod is a peak to be planted on the ground and diffusing an aura of power around it, for the player and the other pillarches. They can be purchased from merchants or provided as loot.
Other changes
- More maximum EGO level
- The EGO level no longer stops at 5000. It is limited to just completed tasks.
- Over Monolith at the Golden Gates Bridge
- You can now cross the bridge connecting to San Francisco even if you have not completed the main mission that requires destroying this Monolith.
- Changes for grenades
- Grenades are now generic: there are no longer different models per type. In addition, these are now consumables, up to 5 at a time, which you can reload by finding Ground Grenade Charges in loots or purchasing them from merchants.
- The damage done depends on the rarity of the weapon
- Rarity now counts for damage.
- Damage done depending on weapon level
- Your weapon's EGO level should stick closer to your personal EGO rating to get more damage. There is a new option in the Recovery Matrix to increase weapon level in exchange for Arcos.
- Graduation of difficulty
- The difficulty, type and resistance of enemies now scale based on the number of players in the area and their EGO rating. This is called the threat level and ranges from 1 to 10. If your own EGO level is too low, it will be automatically and temporarily increased so that you are not at a disadvantage. The temporary EGO level appears in yellow.
- New type of protection: armor plate
- Plates of armor are additional protection for the player over the shield. Unlike the latter, they do not regenerate automatically and must be repaired using the new chests located at shortcuts near the ammunition chests.
- Expert mode of some instances
- Some game modes like cooperative maps and arenas can now be played in expert mode, starting at an EGO 5000 level.
- scores
- The ranking of scores and end-of-event rewards no longer depend solely on the damage done, but on a complex calculation combining types of damage, assists, triggered nano effects, etc.
- Legendary mods and weapons
- Epic and Legendary rarity mods are now available. Additionally, legendary weapons can also be purchased from certain vendors in exchange for reputation points.
